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NEWIMAGINARY-VALUEDSIMILARITY
SOLUTIONSFORLAMINARBOUNDARY
LAYERSWITHASPRAY
R. Z. Orland and D. Katoshevski
Department of Biotechnology and Environmental Engineering, Ben-Gurion University of the
Negev, Beer-Sheva 84105, Israel
D. M. Broday
Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa
32000, Israel
Original Manuscript Submitted: 20/10/2009; Final Draft Received: 22/10/2009
A new similarity solution for spray distribution in a boundary layer ow, involving an imaginary-valued variable,
is presented. The ow eld similarity solution has three branches, the two known solutions for accelerating ow
and moderately decelerating ow and a new solution, which is the focus here, for high-rate deceleration. This last
family of solutions involves the use of imaginary expressions in the course of the similarity procedure. Although
the procedure employs imaginary expressions, the solution in the physical plane admits a ne behavior. The mass
distribution of spray droplets in the boundary layer for the latter case shows that the highest concentration is
either at the wall or at the edge of the boundary layer, depending on the nature of downstream variation of
the aerosol concentration at the outer ow and on the particular branch of the ow solution. The new similarity
solution presented here opens the possibility to describe a new range of boundary/shear layer problems. We
demonstrate that the option for describing droplet/particle distributions in such congurations has ramications
for transport and deposition of droplets/particles in boundary layers developed in industrial facilities and sizing
instrumentation, and we suggest its possible application for cases of spray-surface interactions.
INTRODUCTION
Analytical and numerical solutions of laminar
boundary layer and shear layer ows often involve
similarity solutions, which have been extensively
discussed in the literature [14]. Blasius [5] pre-
sented for the rst time such a solution for a
boundary layer with constant free-stream velocity.
Falkner and Skan [6] extended the Blasius solu-
tion to a family of ows for which the free-stream
velocity relates to the longitudinal distance along
the boundary by a power law. The dependence of
solutions on the power of the distance x, x
,
by which the free-stream velocity changes down-
stream, has also been studied extensively [711].
The parameter = 2/( + 1) has often sup-
planted in the resulting equations. For < 1,
but close to 1, admits large positive values, and
these are the cases we address here. Solutions for
large values of and for negative have been
studied [12]. However, these solutions involve an
articial reversal of the ow direction and relate to
a different class of ows than those discussed here
(as elaborated in the model formulation section).
The use of similarity solutions to describe spray
dynamics has been demonstrated in the works of
Katoshevski and coinvestigators [2, 3, 13], who
studied the shear layer formed between two par-
allel streams that move at different velocities and
carry spray droplets. The velocities of the streams
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to D. Katoshevski, Department of Biotechnology
and Environmental Engineering, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva 84105, Israel; e-mail:
davidk@bgu.ac.il
10445110/09/35.00
c 2009 by Begell House, Inc. 1105
1106 R. Z. ORLAND, D. KATOSHEVSKI, AND D. M. BRODAY
were considered constant or to vary as power
of the distance downstream, x
2
u
y
2
(1)
u
x
+
v
y
= 0 (2)
where x and y are the longitudinal and lateral
distances, respectively (with x = 0 being the lead-
ing edge of a at plate or the tip of a wedge
in wedge ow); u and v are the longitudinal and
lateral velocities, respectively; U is the free-stream
velocity (assumed to be longitudinal); and is the
kinematic viscosity.
If we assume the relation U = Cx
, where C
is a constant, the well-known Falkner-Skan trans-
formation may be applied. We dene a stream
function and a similarity variable, respectively:
=
_
2Cx
+1
+ 1
_
1
2
f () (3)
=
_
( + 1) C x
1
2
_
1
2
y (4)
Thus u and v are dened as
u =
y
= Uf
= Cx
(5)
v=
x
=
x
_
+1
2
Cx
+1
_
f +
1
+1
f
_
(6)
where prime denotes differentiation with respect to
. Substituting Eqs. (3)(6) into Eq. (1), we arrive
at the well-known Falkner-Skan equation
f
+ ff
+
_
1
_
f
_
2
_
= 0 (7)
where
=
2
+ 1
(8)
As already mentioned, we will focus on cases
with < 1( > 2), corresponding to cases in
which the similarity variable takes on imaginary
values. Previously, such cases have been regarded
as nonphysical because of the imaginary nature
of resulting functions (f, f
= 0 (9)
= 0 : f = 0 (10)
: f
= 1 (11)
The second condition constrains the possibility of
uid penetration into the boundary, a condition
that may be formulated as f( = 0) = f
0
, where
f
0
> 0 enables wall penetration, according to the
expression for the lateral velocity v (Eq. (6)) at
= 0.
A viable solution should also require that there
be no overshoot, that is, that u does not exceed U
anywhere and hence that f
1. The well-known
cases in which overshoot exists are those where
< 0.1984, unless penetration into the boundary
is allowed [5]. We nd that this applies also for
cases characterized by > 2 addressed here.
IMAGINARY-VALUED FUNCTION AND
VARIABLE
As mentioned, solutions for < 1 ( > 2)
have relied on reversal of ow direction (since
was restricted from receiving imaginary values), so
highly decelerating ows have not been consid-
ered. However, the imaginary nature of does not
necessarily entail a loss of physical applicability
as such values may still correspond to physical
values in real x y coordinate space. Since f
(12)
where is a constant and q is the concentration in
the boundary layer normalized by maximal concen-
tration in it. Assuming convective mass transfer as
the dominant mass transfer mechanism, a conserva-
tion equation for the liquid phase is given:
(uQ)
x
+
(vQ)
y
= 0 (13)
We assume that the spray droplets are small
enough to closely follow the host ow streamlines
and that the spray phase is dilute, so that dynamic
effects of the spray on the continuous uid phase
may be neglected. Employing the ow-eld solu-
tion (by substituting Eqs. (4)(6), and (12) into
Eq. (13)), it may be shown that
q = C
1
f
2
+1
(14)
where C
1
is a constant. This solution for q exhibits
an interesting double branching at both = 0 and
= 1. To avoid complex values of q for <
1, C
1
may, in these cases, be expressed as C
1
=
C
2
i
[2/(+1)]
, where C
2
is a positive real constant.
Note that this in no way limits the applicability
of the analysis to cases with < 1, but merely
shows that such cases may be addressed. Figure 2
shows q as a function of lateral distance from the
boundary for a common negative value of and
different negative values of . Results for positive
values of would simply be the reciprocals of the
results shown. For consistency, the three solutions
presented are for the same degree of boundary
penetration (lateral velocity at the boundary, which,
as explained later, is crucial for the solution), and
thus boundary conditions for f, f
differ.
Unlike the case of = 0, the branch switch of
the similarity solution at = 1 does not manifest
itself in the physical plane. This is to be expected
as the branch splitting at = 0 appears at a point
of physical signicance (the point between the two
branches of increasing and decreasing downstream
free-stream particle concentrations), whereas the
Fig. 2 Variation of the normalized spray concentration similarity function, q, in the physical plane for constant
values of x = 0.1 m and = 1.6
SIMILARITY SOLUTIONS FOR LAMINAR BOUNDARY LAYERS 1109
= 1 singularity point owes more to the em-
ployed similarity variable. Figure 3 displays the
spray distribution in the physical boundary layer
by means of contours of equal normalized concen-
tration, normalized through the maximum value.
In the case presented, the maximum value is at-
tained at the minimum value of x. As x may not
reach zero (it is a point of singularity for ), the
minimum value of x chosen was 0.1 m. It is impor-
tant to note that the new similarity solutions must
involve nonzero values of f( = 0), denoted by
f
0
, to avoid instances in which f
exceeds unity.
Therefore, for a solution to be applicable, we allow
the ow to penetrate the wall (through suction).
While this may be regarded as a restriction on the
applicability of the proposed solutions, such cases
may be of value for various applications.
Nonhomogeneous Surface Coating as an
Application for the New Solution
One possible application would be nonhomoge-
neous coating of surfaces, where droplets are
forced to approach or even deposit on a surface by
transverse ow. This application is addressed here
in a simple manner for the purpose of demonstra-
tion only. Assume a monodisperse droplet popula-
tion with a diameter of 50 m (as previously used
for similar studies [13]) suspended in a laminar
boundary layer proximate to a plane surface. De-
posited spray concentration on the surface would,
assuming stationary capture, be equal to the con-
centration of droplets at a distance from the bound-
ary equal to (or less than) the droplet radius (usu-
ally termed the capture or interception distance).
Such a simplistic demonstrative case is described
in Fig. 4 for = 1.56 10
5
m
2
/s, C = 1 m
1
/s
(where C x